Tag Archives: traffic

Content marketing is arguably the best long-term strategy for marketing a business. Compared to traditional marketing, content marketing costs 62% less, but produces almost 3X as many leads. By regularly publishing high-quality content that people appreciate and share, you’ll generate an abundance of inbound links, ascend Google’s rankings and cement yourself as an authority within your niche. As wonderful as this sounds, executing an effective content marketing strategy is no easy task. Most beginners use the “publish and pray” approach to content marketing – haphazardly posting articles they think will be awesome and hoping that their readers feel the same….

Guerrilla marketing is a form of marketing that utilizes unconventional tactics to get maximum results when promoting a business or service. As the name suggests, this style of marketing relies heavily upon surprise, creativity and shock and awe tactics. Thus, large quantities of money are not necessarily required to perform guerrilla marketing — making it an ideal strategy for startups, small businesses and enterprises alike. It’s a much more personal form of marketing and tends to humanize even the largest of brands. Regardless of the size of your company, a little excitement and buzz surrounding your brand can always be…

The need for a structured, process-driven approach to conversion optimization (CRO) cannot be stressed enough. A structured CRO program is essential to deliver consistent and repeatable improvement in conversion rate and user experience (UX). Only a few organizations and agencies have adopted this approach to optimizing conversions; even fewer have been able to master it.

Kula Partners is one such agency that has actively practiced and advocated a structured CRO program. This story aims to highlight the optimization process followed by Kula Partners and how VWO helped it achieve success at each step of the process.

Based out of Nova Scotia, Canada, Kula Partners is a certified partner with VWO, offering services such as conversion optimization, inbound marketing, and web development. While optimizing conversions for its clients, Jeff White, Principal at Kula Partners, discovered that following a rigorous optimization process is what leads to success.

Synopsis of Kula’s Way of Optimizing for Success

The optimization process at Kula begins with identifying optimization opportunities on a client’s website or landing pages. It is done by closely analyzing website data and user behavior, using a variety of tools. Next, it hypothesizes ways to capitalize on each optimization opportunity. Hypotheses are then prioritized based on a few factors such as potential of improvement and effort in implementation. The hypotheses undergo A/B tests for validation, per its priority list. The results of A/B tests are thoroughly examined, and the learning is documented in a common knowledge repository. This repository is used to generate more hypotheses to optimize the website further. The cycle continues.

As Jeff puts it, “Optimizing a client’s site for conversion always starts for us with listening. We begin by implementing VWO heatmaps, clickmaps, and visitor recordings to see how people are using a site. Combined with analytics from tools such as Google Analytics and HubSpot, we’ll look for the pages that have the biggest opportunities for conversion optimization based on total number of visits and current conversion rates. Once we have a good understanding of how people are using those pages, we’ll implement a series of tests to see how best to improve the conversion rate. Sometimes this takes the form of simple changes to the body copy, button position and format. In other cases, it may mean making much larger bets and designing a wholly different, alternative landing page.

After we’ve an opportunity to implement revisions on a client site, we’ll continue to monitor the results to see how site visitors interact and refine the interface to improve the user experience even further.”

Since 2014, Kula has been trusting VWO for its optimization strategy. It has been using new features as they come up to achieve better conversions for its client websites.

Step-by-Step Process-Oriented Approach to Conversion Optimization

Let’s talk about how Kula puts its well-defined process into practice.

Step1: Identifying Optimization Opportunities

The first step in optimizing a website for more conversions is to establish baselines. This means setting up key metrics or goals that clearly indicate visitor actions and conducting quantitative analysis around these goals. Visitor actions leading to completion of a final goal (such as Checkout in case of eCommerce) are tracked as funnels. The website conversion funnel is extremely effective in spotting leaks—pages from which most users drop off.

Kula uses robust tools such as Google Analytics and HubSpot to track key metrics and discover potential leaks. These tools also point to high-value pages on a website—the pages that attract the highest traffic and the pages that contribute to many conversions.

Jeff says, “We identify opportunities for testing through a number of ways. We establish website funnels in tools such as HubSpot, Google Analytics and MixPanel. We then monitor conversion rates across the funnel to see areas that may be ripe for improvement. “

Step 2: Analyzing Visitor Behavior

After identifying potential leaks, the next step is to analyze how visitors are interacting with these pages on the website. This calls for a qualitative analysis of how visitors behave on the website. Such analysis provides significant insights about why visitors are behaving in a certain way. For example, if a lot of visitors are abandoning sessions on a eCommerce home page, a heatmap or visitor recording can be used to find out what category of products they were looking for and what specific problems they faced while searching for the product. Knowing what deters users from completing a conversion step is an opportunity for optimization.

At Kula, the team takes help of VWO capabilities such as Heatmaps, Scrollmaps, Visitor Recordings, and Form Analysis to understand the usage habits of visitors. It also uses VWO On-page Surveys to directly ask visitors for feedback.

Jeff shares, “As stated above, we always start our tests by observing the present usage habits of site visitors through heatmaps, clickmaps, and visitor recordings. If it makes sense, we may also gather subjective data through exit surveys. Once we have found where users stumble, we formulate specific tests to try to improve conversion.”

Here’s how Kula analyzed visitor behaviors for their clients, using VWO’s advanced capabilities:

Using Heatmaps to Improve Traffic Flow

Kula Partners was working on optimizing the Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA) website by highlighting information for airport visitors at the forefront: arrivals and departures, parking information, and directions. Although the new website saw major traffic increase (more than 300%), the team continued to scout for more optimization opportunities.

A heatmap report of the HIAA home page revealed interesting insights—68% of all clicks on the home page were on the Departures tab and only 6% clicked back to the Arrivals tab.

Kula realized that this made perfect sense. Most of the traffic on the website home page would be coming to check when their flight is scheduled to depart. Far less people would look at the arrivals; they would do that only before receiving someone at the airport.

Based on this insight, Kula decided to make Departures as the default view on the home page. As a result, it saw a 20% drop in the number of visitors that clicked the other tab, which was Arrivals in this case.

Using Website Surveys Directly Provides Insights from Actual Visitors

This time, Kula was optimizing the website of Tirecraft—a company providing superior tires, wheels, accessories, and automotive services. The objective in this case was to increase the number of quotes users submit on the website.

To do that, it first tried to understand what prevented visitors from submitting a quote. It went ahead with a website survey and asked the website visitors, “What stopped you from submitting a quote request today?”

Visitors could choose their answers from the following options:

I prefer to purchase this product in person.

There was no pricing information available.

I need more information.

I can’t buy the product I want online.

Other.

The result of the survey highlighted the major pain points that users faced.

An overwhelming number of visitors responded with the second option “There was no pricing information available.”

Using Visitor Recordings to Optimize User Experience

Jeff shared an example of how Kula is using visitor recordings to help its clients.

“We recently completed a large UX analysis project with a series of visitor recordings for a luxury extended stay apartment company with a national presence in Canada. Through this process, we’ve been able to develop a series of over 100 recommendations for improvement of the user experience. Our plan is to begin a series of extensive innovative A/B tests, starting with their product pages and moving to other areas of the site from there.”

Step 3: Planning and Prioritizing Testing Hypotheses

The insights and observations collected from quantitative and qualitative analyses act as fuel for the optimization engine. Our next key task is to manage this library of insights and build hypotheses for testing based on data insights.

A typical hypothesis statement looks like: Based on the observation that visitors are abandoning cart because they can’t find security seals on the checkout page, I expect that adding security seals on the checkout page will address the trust issues for visitors not completing the purchase.

There is a hypothesis aimed at addressing each optimization opportunity. Just as a thorough website analysis brings up multiple optimization opportunities, the hypotheses are also numerous. At most instances, it is not possible to validate all these hypotheses through A/B tests simultaneously. At that point, the hypotheses are prioritized on factors, including the potential to deliver positive results and ease of implementation. Prioritizing these hypotheses helps us pinpoint which tests to run first and which ones to park for future.

Kula also follows a similar prioritization model. Jeff adds, “Although we don’t specifically follow any single prioritization framework, our process most closely aligns with the PIE framework. As an agency with considerable dev chops, we’re lucky in that we can implement nearly any level of test no matter how complex. The question at that point is whether or not there’s enough potential lift in conversion to make the adjustment worthwhile.”

The prioritization is usually implemented with the help of project management tools.

“We record and detail our hypotheses for client tests using our project management tool, JIRA. We also maintain detailed notes about how to conduct tests and implement them in VWO, using Confluence, so that all Kula team members can quickly reference the correct processes.” explains Jeff.

Step 4: Validating Hypotheses with Testing

After the hypotheses are created and prioritized, it is time to test them. Testing a hypothesis helps you validate your thought process, and a winner assures the percentage of gain you’ll achieve by executing the change on the website. Based on the complexity of the change to be implemented, you should choose the type of test to run. For instance, it makes more sense to experiment with multivariate tests on websites with heavy traffic than on pages with low traffic.

Jeff talks about his experience with testing while he was working with rest of the team on creating a new version of the website to match the new positioning.

“We rolled out a version of the new layout for our HubSpot landing pages four months before we began designing the full site. The result was pretty solid—on our most popular asset landing page, we saw a conversion lift of nearly 10%. This gave us the confidence to deploy the design more widely.

Here is a screenshot of the test variations with the old version on the left and the new one on the right:”

Step 5: Analyzing Test Results and Documenting the Learning

The last leg of the optimization journey focuses on analyzing how the test results tie to visitor behavior and on saving learning from this analysis for future optimization.

Jeff explains, “When running tests, we review the results from VWO but also look at how GA and HubSpot are reporting on the changes in conversion or traffic behavior. We definitely document our results from previous tests in order to inform our future tests. These are also used in our presentations to clients on why/how we should implement CRO for their businesses.”

Key Takeaways

A process-driven strategy for optimizing conversions is the key to long-term success.

To run the optimization engine for long-term growth, businesses need to adopt a structured approach that generates insights and learning that to act as fuel for this engine.

The optimization process begins with first putting the baselines in place and finding areas of potential leaks. Next comes an in-depth view of how the visitors are behaving, that is, qualitative research. This is followed by recording and prioritizing hypotheses, which are validated through structured A/B testing.

Paid Ads > Webinar > Email Nurture > Push for the Sale Traffic Generation > Lead Magnet > Nurture > Grab the Sale Exit Intent > Lead Capture > Reengagement Series > SELL Funnels. Everywhere I turn in the world of internet marketing all I see is advice on how to create the most basic yet aggressive sales funnel. We’re told to push users toward the end goal. An end goal which is collecting their email address or increasing sales. And often, there’s little or no talk about how to progress from the funnel’s end goal. And that presents a…

A term used to describe test methods or algorithms that continuously shift traffic in reaction to the real-time performance of the test. Also known as “multi-armed bandit testing”, the name is derived from the behavior of casino slot machine players who often play several machines at once in order to optimize their payout. Rather than stay with a single machine, the gambler will often play some percentage of the time on several other nearby machines. In this way, the new “hot” machine can be identified without leaving the original machine behind. When used in website testing, bandit testing represents a…

And while Uncle Ben wasn’t explicitly referring to overlays when he said these iconic words to Peter Parker, the same could be said about these handy little conversion tools.

Overlays are modal lightboxes that launch within a webpage and focus attention on a single offer. Still fuzzy on what an overlay is? Click here.

Overlays are powerful marketing tools, not only because they are incredibly effective at snagging conversions, but also because they are so quick to launch.

This combination of power and speed means it’s dangerously easy to launch one without much consideration for user experience. Thus, they’ve developed a bit of a reputation for being effective… and disruptive.

But the disruptive nature of overlays is actually inherent to their effectiveness, because it focuses the visitor’s attention on a single offer. They eliminate the paradox of choice and present the visitor with a simple yes or no question.

However, there are ways to ensure the overlays you launch both achieve your goals and provide value to your visitors.

The first step in accomplishing this is to ask yourself the five Ws:

1. Why are you launching an overlay?

Overlays are most commonly used to accomplish one of three marketing goals: revenue generation, lead generation or traffic shaping.

Do you want to build your blog subscriber list? Divert traffic to your pricing page? Entice visitors to make a purchase? This is what you need to figure out before you even consider building your overlay.

The marketing team at Hotjar recently implemented an overlay in their lead gen strategy for the first time. But just because it was their first attempt didn’t mean there wasn’t a clear goal. Nick Helm, Director of Inbound Marketing at Hotjar explains:

“We wanted to be able to nurture the new leads coming from different channels and bring them back.”

If you don’t have a good answer to the “Why” question though, just stop. Overlays, when used irresponsibly, can be intrusive and annoying. So if you don’t have a solid, strategic reason for launching one, hold on until you do.

Nick et al had a clear goal for their overlay and a detailed plan for how to achieve it, and it paid off: “We did get the quantitative results — which for us, measure better than industry standards.”

Your reason for running an overlay might be lead gen, rev gen or traffic shaping (or maybe something completely unique), but just make sure you have one — plain and simple.

Need some inspiration?

Our our latest ebook, 12 Proven Ways to Convert With Overlays, we share a dozen types of use cases you can use today.

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2. Where will you place your overlay?

Overlays offer a reliable way to fill gaps in your funnel, but you need to figure out where those gaps may be.

The easiest way to do this is to visit Google Analytics to determine your highest-traffic pages. Then whittle down the list to only include pages that don’t have a clear call to action — these pages are the low-hanging fruit you can start with to see immediate results.

You should have already determined what the goal of your overlay is; the diagram below will help you decide which of the CTA-free pages pair best with the type of overlay you’d like to launch.

As you can see, different pages are associated with different levels of buyer intent, and so while a lead gen overlay might perform well on your blog, a rev gen overlay probably won’t.

Now, if you’re a keener and don’t have any high-traffic pages without a CTA then I present you with this anthropomorphic gold star:

But I also challenge you to consider how you might use overlays on your highest-traffic pages to get even better results (because even though you have a CTA, it doesn’t mean people see it).

Adding an overlay with a complementary offer to your main on-page offer can help bolster the success of your page, because overlays leverage the psychological principle of pattern interruption to focus the visitor’s attention on a single offer. Your sidebar CTA, on the other hand, can start to blend into the page, so people become blind to it.

Here’s an example from last year’s Digital Agency Day (DAD) signup page:

Whereas the signup page’s goal was to get people to attend the digital event, this overlay offered exiting visitors the opportunity to simply get the recordings, even if they couldn’t attend.

The results were some of the best we’ve ever seen: 1,991 full-form conversions on 10,005 views.

3. Who should see your overlay?

The key to high-converting overlays is presenting compelling offers that (1) align with the visitor’s buying intent and (2) are relevant to that visitor’s specific needs or interests. This means targeting, and the more granular you can get the better.

The first thing you want to find out is where your visitors are coming from. If you know that, you can better judge what type of overlay should be presented, because different types of traffic relate to different levels of buyer intent (social traffic, for example, is often less likely to make a purchase than paid traffic).

The following chart further illustrates this.

Different traffic sources pair better with specific types of overlays.

Another thing you want to think about is whether the traffic consists of first-time or returning visitors, and — if they are a returning visitor — whether or not they’ve already opted in.

Chances are, your page traffic is a mixture of different referral sources and visitor types, so it can be tricky to present an offer that’s relevant to everyone. Fortunately, Unbounce Convertables recently launched referral and cookie targeting, so you can present more relevant offers by customizing the overlays visitors see based on where they’re coming from or what pages they’ve visited before.

4. What is your overlay offer?

By now, you should be seeing a trend — that creating an effective overlay means keeping the visitor experience at the forefront of your mind. And the sweet spot is where your marketing goals align with the goals of the user: you want the sale, they want the bargain; you want the email, they want the ebook; and so on.

So when you consider what your actual offer will be, ask yourself if your overlay is valuable and relevant to your visitor. If it’s not both of these things things, your results will suffer and you risk being obnoxious.

Value

Offer an exclusive discount, like this lead gen overlay from BustedTees, which offers a generous 40% discount on first orders:

Entice visitors with free shipping, like this rev gen overlay from Diamond Candles:

Present a free resource visitors can’t resist, like this lead gen overlay from Copy Hackers which offers a free four-part conversion optimization course:

Relevance

Another thing to consider when deciding on your offer is whether or not it’s relevant to your audience.

Here’s a real-life example: At Unbounce, our analytics showed that a roundup of the 16 Best Digital Marketing Conferences of 2016 was bringing in a lot of organic traffic. Assuming that people who read about marketing conferences are also interested in attending marketing conferences, we served up this overlay (with a ticket discount to sweeten the pot) that directed people to our Call to Action conference microsite:

And, might I point out, the above overlay is also an incredibly valuable offer — $650 savings? Yes please!

5. When should your visitors see your overlay?

We’ve sorted where your overlays should be seen and by whom, but there’s a final piece in the puzzle: When.

You have a few options around when to trigger your overlay, and depending on the type of offer you’re presenting, different triggers may be more effective than others.

Let’s dig in…

On arrival
On-arrival overlays appear when your page first loads. Use this trigger for offers you want users to immediately see (e.g., a coupon code or an event invitation) or for returning visitors who may no longer notice your onsite calls to action.

On scroll
An overlay using an on-scroll trigger will appear once the user has scrolled through a designated percentage of the page. Use it to present relevant offers to users who have implied interest in a topic after spending time on the page (e.g., a free quote) or to catch the attention of returning visitors who may no longer notice your on-site calls to action.

On exit
Overlays that trigger on exit appear when the user moves to abandon the page. Use them for offers that can “save” a potentially lost conversion (e.g., a coupon code or shipping discount) or for offering free resources or collecting sign-ups that enable you to save a user’s details for future communications.

After delay
Sometimes you’ll want your overlay to appear after a designated time delay, typically between five and 20 seconds. Use this type of overlay to present relevant offers to users who have implied interest in a topic after spending time on the page or for returning visitors who may no longer notice your onsite calls to action.

Psst:Unbounce Convertables include all the above mentioned triggers plus on-click trigger, like this one. Use it to present information or forms on demand without cluttering the page (e.g., “click here to sign up” opening an overlay with a form).

Be a conversion hero

That was a lot of information, I know, but as a marketer it’s your responsibility use your powers for good.

And remember: A thoughtful approach to implementing overlays benefits you and your visitor, because your goals are aligned.

If you’ve been keeping up with any thought leaders over the last few months, you know that we are all talking about user experience. The more you can customize, personalize, optimize, target, adapt, and segment your individual user experiences, the more success you’ll see you in 2017. That’s a nice thought, but not a very easily implemented practice. The truth is that tracking user experience is no easy feat. Especially in Google Analytics. Vague attribution models and skewed conversion paths make reporting on your user experience frustrating, to say the least. So, to make things easier, start combing through your…

We lied to you. For years, we, as providers of an A/B testing tool, told you it was easy. We made a visual editor and pretty graphs and gave you wins on engagement or a lower bounce rate, but we did not really contribute to your bottom line. My apologies for making it look easy and dragging you into A/B testing when, in fact, it is actually very hard to do right. Flashback: It was July 2012, and on a sunny afternoon at the Blue Dahlia Cafe in Austin, I had lunch with Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg, both recognized authorities…

Blogging is a powerful B2B content marketing tool. But many B2B content marketers aren’t getting anything close to its full effectiveness. So they conclude that blogging doesn’t work, or at least that it doesn’t work for their business. In fact, you could be reaping massively higher traffic, leads, and sales with a well-constructed blogging strategy. By the end of this guide, you’ll know why blogging works and how to create, implement, and measure a blogging strategy that will work for you. First, though… 1. Why Blog at All? Blogging regularly can lead to more traffic, more leads, and more sales….

A recent Tomoson poll revealed that “[b]usinesses are making $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.” Not only that, marketers rate influencer marketing as their fastest-growing online customer-acquisition method, above organic search and email marketing.

One share from an influencer can massively impact your traffic. I’ve seen it happen with posts on the Crazy Egg blog. And on my own blog, a post that cites 16 experts has received double the traffic of the next-most-popular blog post, thanks to those experts’ shares.

Participation from just one big-name influencer can give your roundup post, podcast or interview series a ton of traction. Suddenly, other industry leaders are eager to contribute. After all, they want to be seen in the same “category” as Big Name Influencer.

And finally, having a personal relationship with influencers can significantly boost your own credibility. Which means you can get more subscribers and followers with less effort.

You’ve got the traffic — now how do you convert it?

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There’s just one problem: Influencers are busy — and notoriously hard to reach. You have just one chance to reach out to them in a way that opens doors instead of slamming them shut.

Blow it, and you may never get another opportunity to connect with them.

Outreach matters, obviously. But it’s critical to do it right. So I asked PR expert Dmitry Dragilev, founder of JustReachOut.io, to share his five-step process.

Dmitry used PR and content marketing to grow his business from 0 to 3,500 customers in the first year and generate $100,000 revenue in just nine months. His product, JustReachOut, was designed specifically for this type of work, helping you find and pitch relevant journalists and bloggers by searching keywords, competitors, niches, publications and more.

The key is to understand that outreach isn’t about getting what you need as quickly as possible. It’s about taking the time to turn big-name influencers into long-term friends. In a moment, we’ll review Dmitry’s process for doing just that. But first…

Why influencer outreach matters

Relationship building is key to influencer outreach.

According to Dmitry, two overriding principles guide influencer outreach: value in advance and relationship building.

Interestingly, these are the words we use most often when talking about marketing. We tend to think that’s what we’re doing when we offer free content such as lead magnets, webinars or video training.

And in the link building emails I get, I’m sure the sender thinks his compliment in the opening line is a value-add that gets my attention.

But when it comes to outreach, Dmitry recommends a more personal approach. Most people, when doing outreach, focus on their own needs. They don’t want to take time to build relationships by providing value up front.

Dmitry says,

That’s a huge mistake. It’s a relationship that will get you the results you want and keep getting you mentions and links in the future.

You have to slow the pace so you can build a deeper, more authentic relationship — which, in the long run, will benefit you more.

Dmitry is emphatic that you shouldn’t ask for or expect a quick transaction. Remember, whether you’re asking for a link,coverage or a mention, that person doesn’t know you at all.

When you’re drafting your outreach email, ask yourself, “Would I actually say this to a person if I saw them at a conference? Would I walk up to a person I don’t know and make an immediate pitch?”

The key to influencer outreach is to begin the virtual relationship in the same way you would a live relationship: start with common ground, talk about them, let them tell you what they need.

By giving value before you ask for anything in return, you’ve got a much higher chance of getting what you want.

Now let’s look at the framework Dmitry uses when he does influencer outreach.

1. Your why

Always start with a goal in mind. What action would you like the influencer to take? Why do you want to connect with him or her?

You won’t necessarily start the conversion with your goal, but you need to have a legitimate reason for reaching out.

2. Finding influencers

The type of person you choose to reach out to depends on your goals. If you want publicity, look for a journalist. If you want a product review, look for a content marketer or blogger who does reviews. For a celebrity mention, find a celebrity who is involved in your industry or respected within your niche.

Where do you find these people?

The quickest path is through a tool designed for the purpose. JustReachOut is one choice. I’ve played around with Mailshake (formerly ContentMarketer.io) and Ninja Outreach and can recommend them as well.

But if you’re budget is tight, you can search for influencers manually in forums such as Reddit and Quora, or through HelpAReporter, Twitter or ProfNet queries.

Once you’ve identified an influencer, you need to do some research. Learn as much as you can about what they’re doing and look for ways to help them.

Except we don’t call it stalking. We call it following.Image via Giphy.

As an example, Dmitry wanted to see if he could get an interview with Ashton Kutcher for his speaker series.

He began by trying to figure out what Ashton’s motivations might be. Knowing he’s trying to break into the startup world and start investing, Dmitry guessed the actor was trying to network and learn as much as he could.

Dmitry also began following Ashton’s work, including his speaking engagements and social media activity. The goal? To identify the people he’s quoting or talking about.

Next, he developed a strategy for his outreach. He identified some experts whom Ashton seemed to admire, reasoning, “if I have maybe a quarter of those people on my speaker series maybe I can reach out and say, ‘I have these other people lined up. Would you be willing to speak as well?’”

It worked like a charm. After scheduling those experts for his speaking series, Dmitry finally reached out to Ashton, and the answer was gracious. “Yeah, I really do admire a lot of people you have on your guest list.” The actor connected Dmitry with his assistant and they’ve been in touch ever since.

Notice that Dmitry actively looked for a point of intersection, so his email would feel authentic and credible.

3. Contacting influencers

Most outreach emails follow a word-for-word template.

Big mistake!

Is it any wonder those emails get deleted? In many cases, the influencer has seen that template hundreds of times already.

To get an influencer’s attention, you need to be human. Be yourself. And before hitting “send,” review your email carefully to be sure it sounds authentic. Here’s what Dmitry recommends:

I think there is something to be said for just reading your email as if someone sent it to you. Is it interesting or overly pushy?

Then test it out on your readers or your friends. How did they feel by the time you asked for a sale? Did you provide enough value upfront?

But before trying to craft your email, you need to clarify two things:

Your value offer. What’s in it for them? Make sure you offer more value than you ask in return.

Your pitch. Find a point of intersection, then add credibility. Your offer has to be meaningful to them.

As an example, look at the email Dmitry first sent to me. The subject line was “your mention of ContentMarketer, I’m friends with founder.” And the email read:

Hey Kathryn,

My name is Dmitry Dragilev and I am the founder of JustReachOut.io. I help startups and entrepreneurs hack pitching and getting press mentions weekly without the help of PR firms.

I grew the last startup I worked on from 0 to 40M+ pageviews through PR outreach and we got acquired by Google, I automated the same PR outreach process to build JustReachOut.io algorithm, we have 2K+ startups currently paying and using us to pitch press.

I am not here to brag I promise! I simply want to connect with you

Two things:

I have some PR hacks I wanted to share with you, maybe you could use them in your next article.

I thought you might be interested in learning about JustReachOut.io. I will be very happy to give you a special extended trial for a test run.

I respect your schedule and will completely understand if don’t have the time. No hard feelings. But you will miss the chance to make my day and to learn how to get press on the biggest outlets in the world.

Have an awesome Friday.

-Dmitry

Let’s look at the structure he follows:

Introduce yourself. Tell them who you are

Identify a point of intersection. Something you’ve both said or someone you both know. You can be creative, but it needs to be genuine.

Add a bit of credibility. In other words, why you’re worth talking to about this topic.

Make an offer. It should be something that adds value to the recipient, so they feel comfortable responding.

4. Following up (the right way)

Relax. Follow-up takes time. Don’t rush it.

Dmitry has found that moving too fast can derail your efforts. Take it slow, he says, and you’ll get better results.

Don’t be aggressive.

Don’t lose patience.

Don’t push for immediate results.

Your focus should be on adding value over time, not immediately achieving your goal.

It’s critical to slow down your time frame so the relationship can evolve naturally. You need to hold off asking for anything until you’ve built trust and reciprocity.

For example, Dmitry still hasn’t been able to schedule that interview with Ashton Kutcher, but there’s no reason to rush. They continue to correspond about three times a year.

5. Adopting a value-first mindset

Influencer outreach isn’t easy. It takes patience and perseverance — and a commitment to giving at least as much as you receive. Dmitry says the key is to start now, before you need an influencer, so the value exchange is already in your favor.

If you wait until the last minute to begin your outreach campaign, you’ve put yourself in the position of needing results quickly. Then you’ll do everything wrong.

That being the case, don’t tack outreach onto the end of your campaigns or content promotion. You need to be building and nurturing relationships all the time.

The bottom line

Too often as content marketers, we’re focused on creating quality content, scheduling social media and doing a lot of technical tasks for promotion. In many cases, moving quickly from one task to another is how you get results.

Influencer outreach is just the opposite. For success, you need to slow your pace, focus on the people you’re contacting and help them reach their goals.

It may look like a distraction or a low-ROI activity. In reality, it’s an investment that can pay huge dividends down the road.

What are your biggest outreach challenges? Share in the comments below.